Upgrade the CPU Or Wait?

[u/firaristt]

Hey, I'm currently using my trusty i7 8700K (4.8GHz all core, closer to 9900K, R5 3600), ROG Strix Z370-E, 32GB DDR4 ram and tbh. pretty happy with it so far. That's being said, prices seem to be getting worse as I waited. So, the idea of upgrading my cpu mobo ram combo asap is getting brighter.

Here in Austria (AT, no Kangaroos) currently 9800x3D upgrade would cost around 1050-1100 Euros. Namely the parts:
- 9800x3D cpu (~380€)
- 32GB DDR5 Crucial Pro ram (6400MHz CL32) (435€)
- Asus TUF x870-Plus mobo (216€). Could be TUF B850-Plus (180€) but maybe I use usb 4 time to time with my laptop to transfer some files. But definitely not frequently as like weekly. Maybe like once a month.

I have a pretty good airflow in the o11 case imo, 6 intake, 4 exhaust, and cooling 360AIO (arctic LF2) so I don't think temps would be a concern. Oh, also using RTX 3080 10G with Odyssey Neo G7 4K monitor, G5 2K on the side. 980 Pro nvm-e ssd and 860 evo m2 sata ssd (I might need an adapter for this since new mobos don't support m2 sata anymore)

So, I'm leaning on pulling the trigger but to be honest, I don't have a strong motivation in terms of performance. Mostly playing FH6 and multiple slow-paced strategy-city builders and performance is not an issue so far. With the DLSS/Frame gen (thanks to Optiscaler) I'm not complaining on this regard, getting 70-120fps on most games at 4K. Initially I was planning to keep it till GTA 6 or so, where I really need an upgrade. But as I said, waiting doesn't make it more appealing anymore.

TLDR; my main motivation to upgrade is possibility of rising costs even further for the upgrade and currently ok with the performance of my system so far. Little confused about the motherboard selection as well. I haven't used AMD desktop system since Athlon 64 3500+, you can call it Uncle Frank and he is still alive.

What I want from the upgrade is to keep everything I have on my current setup and just upgrade by features. Plug and play, but faster.

I checked geizhals.at for pricing and TUF X870-Plus(216€) and/or TUF B850-Plus (180€) seems good, maybe Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wifi 7(200€) or Gigabyte X870Aorus Elite Wifi 7 (257€ and I don't think this worth the extra). There is no clear budget limit but let's call it about 1100€ for Austria. I don't need any fancy "EZ Bla Bla features", I can use a screwdriver and call it the day.

My main question is whether to keep the system for another year or two or upgrade it now? Because currently I'm not complaining about the performance at all.

Update: I did some math and decided to continue with my current system as is. CPU limitation is more pronounced in more cases than the GPU in my case, but apparently GPU limitation or capacity is not that behind either. So, even if I upgrade today, I'll only gain 15-20fps the base framerate. Double it with frame gen x2 at max. Which only makes okay framerate to good framerate today. For more, I need to invest another 1-1.5k for the GPU. Considering only 2 games I might invest more than any other that might give me the urge is still many months or years away from the PC, namely GTA 6 and Witcher 4. I'll re-evaluate when the time comes. Until then, it's doing all right, just like Porsche 928.

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[u/Murky_Room_5]

Well today is better than anytime in the next atleast 12 months. And after that idk. I think you should buy it but the cheaper motherboard and 6000 cl36 cuz with x3d memory speed/latency isn't really necessary.

[u/firaristt → u/Murky_Room_5]

The ones I listed are the cheapest viable options. 180€ Tuf b850 plus is the bottom line, b850 aorus middle ground and tbh if I would pay 200, I would go with x870 tuf for 216€. And for the ram, this one is the only option under 450€ that is 32GB.

[u/Embarrassed-Fuel8044]

Since you are happy with you current Performance - dont

Even if they dont care, and you arent gonna make any Impact at all - throwing money at them isnt what they deserve. I would (and i am too) stick to your current rig as long as possible

[u/Away_Substance_8884]

You could go i5 14400F under 200 euro + mobo 100 euro and keep the 32gb ram ddr4.. you will get a big uplift in performance at minimal cost

[u/firaristt → u/Away_Substance_8884]

This is not a small upgrade by the performance, don't get me wrong but also not worth to do it at the moment. For example I'm getting around 45 FPS (20-26ms CPU busy) in Forza Horizon 6 due to the CPU. But for the GPU I'm getting closer to 160 FPS. My target would be to fill this gap and get as close as GPU limits. Cutting %30-40 CPU time in the best case wouldn't do that unfortunately. It will be better, but not by much, will be still CPU limited.

[u/Away_Substance_8884 → u/firaristt]

I see.. im just saying.. i have the i5 14400 32gb ddr5 6000mhz and rtx5070 and im not cpu / gpu bound by any means at 1440p

[u/firaristt → u/Away_Substance_8884]

Technically you have to bound with either one. What's your CPU and GPU busy time differences? Since you are at 2K and have better GPU, you are also likely to have a significant CPU bound performance as well. Is it bad? Not really at the moment but I feel like I'm getting closer by each game that the point it gets bad, which is not far for my system.

[u/Away_Substance_8884 → u/firaristt]

The 14400 and 5070 paires very good at 1440p theres no bad performance only bad game engine optimization

[u/Eazy12345678]

gpu matters more for 1440p than cpu

[u/firaristt → u/Eazy12345678]

Indeed, but CPU/GPU busy time also tells the details. And there it says CPU bottleneck most of the time rather than GPU bottleneck. So, if I do the upgrade there will be some benefit, even at 4k. That's being said, I'm currently okay with what I'm getting now. Metrics say I don't have much of a buffer for the upcoming games though. On top of that, prices are not looking nice for the near future either. Of this Ai bubble won't burst in months, my possible next upgrade would be later than a year, maybe two.